Déjà Vu

Chapter 6

Now ~ Evelyn

The next week passes in a blur of new faces, introductory classes and an endless stream of homework.

She finds that she loves all of her classes; she loves the way all of the classes are taught at Hogwarts, really. Everything was much more formal at Beauxbatons, her classes filled with stern-faced teachers and countless textbooks; rarely did they ever experience true hands-on learning. She had loved how on their very first day of Transfigurations they had been given a simple instruction and an order to try it out for themselves, rather than the countless in-depth readings they had to do about things like that at her old school.

She's also been spending most of her free time with Luna, Ginny and Padma, having more fun than she's had in a while. She clicked with them so quickly, and she feels like she can tell them anything after only a week of knowing them. They're all so nonjudgemental, regardless of whatever weird secret she lets out late at night.

She finds that they spend a lot of time over in Gryffindor, so she does too. She's met Ginny's other two siblings, George and Ron, along with Harry and Hermione. She really, really likes Hermione. She'd thought that the girl didn't like her at first — she had been a little too serious for someone who liked her — but Evelyn soon found that when she got to know the girl some more, she would soon become one of her favorite people at Hogwarts.

Overall, she's having a great time.

This is no thanks to Fred, however. He seems to hate her just as much as he did on her first day, no matter how much she tries to fix that.

She had assumed that he wouldn't be too happy when she started to sit near him at meals, but she had also assumed that he would get over it quickly. She had wanted to say no when Luna told her that she and Padma always sat at Gryffindor in the dining hall and had invited her to sit with them, but where else is she supposed to sit? She has no other friends. Unless she wants to sit alone, sitting at the Gryffindor table has been her only option.

She gets along great with everyone, except Fred, that is. She seemed to fit right in after a few meals, easily sliding into their conversations and new inside jokes. She feels such a huge relief that she's found these people, that she has people to spend her time with, and she's trying not to let Fred's moodiness affect that.

It's just so, so bad. She's never felt like anyone truly hated her before. She does not like it one bit.

One morning, Fred had dished some eggs onto his plate and started to look around for the salt, his eyes obviously tracing the table for the small glass jar. Evelyn had grabbed it and pushed it towards him, but when he'd seen that it was her pushing it to him, he just turned up his nose and got right to eating his unsalted eggs. He couldn't even take salt from her. Salt!

Another time, she'd been doing her impression of Mcgonagall (ridgid back, stiff upper lip, ever-present frown, overly posh accent) that had seemed to be a hit every time she did it, and she had gotten the entire table to laugh. Fred had let out a snort, that endearingly ugly sound that he made whenever he couldn't hold a laugh in, but when she turned to look at him, to attempt to have at least one moment where they laughed together at something again, his face quickly turned stone-cold again and he turned back to his food. Sharing any sort of positive emotion is out of the picture too, apparently.

The time that stands out the most to her is when she'd fallen on her ass, right in the middle of the hallway, because of course she tripped over nothing on her second day of school. That kind of stuff just happened to her. Luckily, the hallway had been mostly empty except for a few first years and, of course, Fred Weasley. She'd been looking out the window when she fell, her things going absolutely everywhere, and she'd looked up to see Fred staring at her with a look of distaste. He'd done a once over of her and all of her things that laid scattered around the floor, scoffed, and walked away. He really, truly, hates her.